Claude Monet was a French impressionist painter, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.
Early Days
Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840. He was the second son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude Monet, but his parents called him simply Oscar. In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy, France. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery business, but Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.
On April 1 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, on the beaches of Normandy in about 1856 to 1857, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, who became his mentor and taught him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet "en plein air" which means outdoor drawing techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind. On 28 January 1857, his mother died. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to live with his widowed childless aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre.
When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old painters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet was in Paris for many years and met other young painters who would become friends and fellow impressionists; among them was Édouard Manet.
In June 1861, Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for a seven-year commitment, but, two years later, after he had contracted typhoid fever, his aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete an art course at an art school. It is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter. Disillusioned with the traditional art taught at art schools, in 1862 Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes, in what later came to be known as Impressionism.
Monet's Camille or The Woman in the Green Dress (La femme à la robe verte), painted in 1866, brought him recognition and was one of many works featuring his future wife, Camille Doncieux; she was the model for the figures in Women in the Garden of the following year, as well as for On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, 1868, pictured here. Camille became pregnant and gave birth to their first child, Jean in 1867.
Monet and Camille Doncieux had married just before the war (28 June 1870) and, after their excursion to London and Zaandam, they had moved to Argenteuil, in December 1871. It was during this time that Monet painted various works of modern life. Camille became ill in 1876. They had a second son, Michel, on 17 March 1878, (Jean was born in 1867). This second child weakened her already fading health. In that same year, Monet moved to the village of Vétheuil. On 5 September 1879, Camille Monet died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-two; Monet painted her on her death bed.
Water Lillies
Water Lilies
The Water Lilies is a painting by impressionist Claude Monet painted during his series called Water Lilies. The painting depicts a scene in a French pond showing light reflecting off the water with Water Lilies on the surface. It was painted in 1919 and as of 2012 is on display in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At his home in Giverny, Monet created the water-lily pond that served as inspiration forhis last series of paintings. His popularity soared in the second half of the20th century, when his works traveled the world in museum exhibitions that
attracted record-breaking crowds and marketed popular commercial items featuring imagery from his art.
This Monets painting of the Japanese bridge.
The Clos Normand
Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883. The piece of land sloped gently down from the house to the road was planted with an orchard and enclosed by high stone walls.
A central alley bordered with pines separated it into two parts. Monet had the pines cut down, keeping only the two yews closest to the house to please Alice.
From this Clos Normand of about one hectare, Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours.
Claude Monet did not like organized nor constrained gardens. He married flowers according to their colours and left them to grow rather freely.
With the passing years he developed a passion for botany, exchanging plants with his friends Clemenceau and Caillebotte. Always on the look-out for rare varieties, he bought young plants at great expense. "All my money goes into my garden," he said. But also: "I am in raptures."
In 1893, ten years after his arrival at Giverny, Monet bought the piece of land neighbouring his property on the other side of the railway. It was crossed by a small brook, the Ru, which is a diversion of the Epte, a tributary of the Seine River. With the support of the prefecture, Monet had the first small pond dug ; even though his peasant neighbours were opposed. They were afraid that his strange plants would poison the water.
In this water garden you will find the famous Japanese bridge covered with wisterias, other smaller bridges, weeping willows, a bamboo wood and above all the famous nympheas which bloom all summer long. The pond and the surrounding vegetation form an enclosure separated from the surrounding countryside.
The Japanese bridge
Monet had the Japanese bridge built by a local craftsman. By the time the garden was restored, the bridge was too damaged to be saved. It had to be rebuilt by a firm from Vernon. It is made of beech wood.The wisterias have been planted by Monet.
Visit
500 000 visitors discover Monet's gardens each year during the seven months that it is open.
To prevent people from treading on the plants, and thus retain the garden's beauty, the inner alleys are closed to the public. Visitors walk on the side alleys and can walk all around the garden to admire all its perspectives.
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a French impressionist painter, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting.
Early Days
Claude Monet was born on 14 November 1840. He was the second son of Claude Adolphe Monet and Louise Justine Aubrée Monet. On 20 May 1841, he was baptized in the local parish church, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as Oscar-Claude Monet, but his parents called him simply Oscar. In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy, France. His father wanted him to go into the family grocery business, but Monet wanted to become an artist. His mother was a singer.
On April 1 1851, Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of the arts. Monet also undertook his first drawing lessons from Jacques-François Ochard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, on the beaches of Normandy in about 1856 to 1857, he met fellow artist Eugène Boudin, who became his mentor and taught him to use oil paints. Boudin taught Monet "en plein air" which means outdoor drawing techniques for painting. Both received the influence of Johan Barthold Jongkind. On 28 January 1857, his mother died. At the age of sixteen, he left school and went to live with his widowed childless aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre.
When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old painters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet was in Paris for many years and met other young painters who would become friends and fellow impressionists; among them was Édouard Manet.
In June 1861, Monet joined the First Regiment of African Light Cavalry in Algeria for a seven-year commitment, but, two years later, after he had contracted typhoid fever, his aunt intervened to get him out of the army if he agreed to complete an art course at an art school. It is possible that the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, whom Monet knew, may have prompted his aunt on this matter. Disillusioned with the traditional art taught at art schools, in 1862 Monet became a student of Charles Gleyre in Paris, where he met Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frédéric Bazille and Alfred Sisley. Together they shared new approaches to art, painting the effects of light en plein air with broken color and rapid brushstrokes, in what later came to be known as Impressionism.
Monet's Camille or The Woman in the Green Dress (La femme à la robe verte), painted in 1866, brought him recognition and was one of many works featuring his future wife, Camille Doncieux; she was the model for the figures in Women in the Garden of the following year, as well as for On the Bank of the Seine, Bennecourt, 1868, pictured here. Camille became pregnant and gave birth to their first child, Jean in 1867.
Monet and Camille Doncieux had married just before the war (28 June 1870) and, after their excursion to London and Zaandam, they had moved to Argenteuil, in December 1871. It was during this time that Monet painted various works of modern life. Camille became ill in 1876. They had a second son, Michel, on 17 March 1878, (Jean was born in 1867). This second child weakened her already fading health. In that same year, Monet moved to the village of Vétheuil. On 5 September 1879, Camille Monet died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-two; Monet painted her on her death bed.
Water Lillies
Water Lilies
The Water Lilies is a painting by impressionist Claude Monet painted during his series called Water Lilies. The painting depicts a scene in a French pond showing light reflecting off the water with Water Lilies on the surface. It was painted in 1919 and as of 2012 is on display in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.At his home in Giverny, Monet created the water-lily pond that served as inspiration forhis last series of paintings. His popularity soared in the second half of the20th century, when his works traveled the world in museum exhibitions that
attracted record-breaking crowds and marketed popular commercial items featuring imagery from his art.
The Clos Normand
Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883. The piece of land sloped gently down from the house to the road was planted with an orchard and enclosed by high stone walls.A central alley bordered with pines separated it into two parts. Monet had the pines cut down, keeping only the two yews closest to the house to please Alice.
From this Clos Normand of about one hectare, Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours.
Claude Monet did not like organized nor constrained gardens. He married flowers according to their colours and left them to grow rather freely.
With the passing years he developed a passion for botany, exchanging plants with his friends Clemenceau and Caillebotte. Always on the look-out for rare varieties, he bought young plants at great expense. "All my money goes into my garden," he said. But also: "I am in raptures."
In 1893, ten years after his arrival at Giverny, Monet bought the piece of land neighbouring his property on the other side of the railway. It was crossed by a small brook, the Ru, which is a diversion of the Epte, a tributary of the Seine River. With the support of the prefecture, Monet had the first small pond dug ; even though his peasant neighbours were opposed. They were afraid that his strange plants would poison the water.
In this water garden you will find the famous Japanese bridge covered with wisterias, other smaller bridges, weeping willows, a bamboo wood and above all the famous nympheas which bloom all summer long. The pond and the surrounding vegetation form an enclosure separated from the surrounding countryside.
The Japanese bridge
Monet had the Japanese bridge built by a local craftsman. By the time the garden was restored, the bridge was too damaged to be saved. It had to be rebuilt by a firm from Vernon. It is made of beech wood.The wisterias have been planted by Monet.Visit
500 000 visitors discover Monet's gardens each year during the seven months that it is open.To prevent people from treading on the plants, and thus retain the garden's beauty, the inner alleys are closed to the public. Visitors walk on the side alleys and can walk all around the garden to admire all its perspectives.